


Not Actually Morticia

by runawaycartoonist



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Coming Out, FTM, More summer and morty bonding!, Trans Character, Trans!Morty, Trans!Rick, Transphobia, referenced stanchez, rick is an asshole but that's a given
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6878380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runawaycartoonist/pseuds/runawaycartoonist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Morticia, something felt a little... off. She felt like maybe she wasn't Morticia. The name didn't suit her. The name Morty suited her a little bit better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Actually Morticia

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm not trans. However, I am pansexual and Morty's discovery process is very similar to my own in a lot of ways (but I was a big chicken and I came out to my mum through a letter). This is my first time writing a trans character, so if I got anything wrong, please tell me and I'll add it to the disclaimer or fix it!

Morticia was brushing her hair. She never liked her hair, but she’d never really thought much about changing it. It just… it didn’t suit her. Not really. Nor did all of those dresses that Beth kept buying for her, or the makeup that Summer desperately wanted her to try. The dresses were pretty and the makeup suited her skin tone nicely, but… she just wasn’t sure. She preferred jeans and t-shirts over skirts, punk music to boy bands, hanging out with Rick over sleepovers with girls her own age.

It was almost like she was bad at being a girl. She didn’t like the things she was supposed to, didn’t hang out with the people she should, didn’t even look or dress the way girls should.

She brushed her teeth, staring at the dark bags under her eyes in her reflection. Something about this felt… wrong. Like the person in the mirror didn’t quite match up with how she felt. She just… couldn’t really put her finger on it. 

She tied her hair back, pulled on a baggy t-shirt and jeans, and went downstairs to have breakfast.

Summer was on her phone, Jerry was on his tablet, Beth was reading a book, and Rick was tinkering with something that was smoking slightly.

“Good morning, Morticia,” said Beth, glancing up from her book.

“Hi, Mom.” Morticia grabbed some toast and jam from the kitchen, made herself some breakfast, and returned to the table.

“M-Morticia,” said Rick, shoving his little project aside. “W-we’re gonna be going to the Zanthar system, today. I-I need to get some quartz thistles, they’re v-very valuable, very important for my science.”

“Sure, Rick,” she said. She started munching on her toast.

“Morticia,” said Beth. “Don’t you have a big project to do at school, today?”

Ugh, she did. She swallowed her mouthful. “I-I have no idea.”

“She does,” said Summer, not looking up from her phone.

“W-who asked you,  _ Summer? _ ” snapped Rick. “School’s a waste of time! I-it teaches people  _ what  _ to think, not  _ how  _ to think!”

“Regardless,” said Jerry. “Morticia has to go. You can pick her up after school.”

“Ugh,  _ fine. _ ” Rick stabbed at his eggs. “Whatever.”

Morticia finished off her toast, grabbed her backpack, and waved goodbye to her family on her way out the door.

She could hear Rick arguing with her parents even as she walked away from the house.

...

The big project that she had to do was write a five-hundred word essay for health class. She’d just endured two weeks of horrifying sex ed where she’d had to watch the gym teacher put condoms on bananas and talk about uteruses. Ugh.

They had to pick one of the topics they touched on, do a little more research about it in the computer lab, and hand in a paper. Easy enough, she supposed. She usually struggled with essays. The words seemed to swim off of the page just a bit.

When she sat down at the computer lab, the gym teacher held out a baseball cap full of little papers.

“Pick one,” he said, sounding bored.

“Um, okay.” She rifled through the papers and picked one out. The gym teacher moved on to the next student. She read her little paper.

_ LGBT. _

Morticia didn’t know much about LGBT people. She knew that the G stood for “Gay”, that there was a pride parade in her town every year, and that marriage equality was a huge achievement made in this century. Other than that, she was somewhat in the dark. They barely even touched on the subject in sex ed.

She typed it into her computer and she quickly discovered the other letters in the acronym stood for “Lesbian”, “Bisexual” and “Transgender”.

Transgender? For some reason, that word struck a chord with her. She decided to do a little more research on that.

When she typed in the word, news articles, pride flags, and dictionary definitions popped up. The definition read, “ _ Transgender - adj.  _ _ transˈjendər,tranzˈjendər/. Denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender. _ ”

She didn’t really understand it. She did a little more digging and found a definition in layman’s terms.

“ _ People who identify as transgender or transsexual are usually people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they’ve been born into the “wrong body”. _ ”

Huh. She didn’t really like the negative language, but… it made sense. Sometimes the brain doesn’t match up with the body, y’know?

Then, it was like a little lightbulb clicked on in her brain.  _ Transgender. _ When she was born, the doctors looked at her and decided she was a girl. She grew up, and she decided that they were wrong, and she was actually a boy.

It made so much sense. She felt elated. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.  _ Transgender. _ She latched onto that term. She wasn’t bad at being a girl, she was actually a boy  _ pretending  _ to be a girl this whole time! No wonder she didn’t like dresses or makeup. No wonder she had this massive crush on Jessica. No wonder she didn’t feel like a  _ she. _

She threw herself full into her research and discovered safe circles, articles, websites, and more. She overloaded her brain with information and furiously took notes for her essay. It was amazing! There was a whole community of people who felt just like her!

No, not her.

_ Him. _

Morticia wasn’t a girl, he was a boy.

He cupped his hand around his mouth and mumbled to himself, “ _ I’m a boy. _ ”

It felt so damn  _ right. _

It was the first time that Morticia had ever  _ enjoyed  _ writing an essay, before. He had it finished before the end of the period, much to the astonishment of his health teacher.

“Wow,” he said, reading it over. “Good job, Morticia.”

“Thanks,” he said, taking a seat back at the computer.

Okay, so now he knew he was a boy. He had that buckled down tight. Now, what does he do? He can’t keep pretending to be a girl, forever. Pretending to be something you’re not is  _ exhausting. _ How could he go from presenting as a girl to presenting as a boy?

He found information about HRT and surgery, and he immediately shied away from it all. Not that he didn’t  _ want  _ it, just not now. He wanted to start small. There was some stuff he felt like he could do.

He desperately wanted to cut his hair.

The thought pestered him all day, through Math class, lunch, English, and Social Studies. It wouldn’t leave him alone.

_ Just cut your hair. _

It seemed like a small step, but it was much more than just a style change. He desperately wanted to do this. He  _ had  _ to.

Rick was waiting for him in the flying car outside of his school when the bell rang. It was then that he realized that he couldn’t just suddenly become a boy and everything would be okay. He’d have to deal with repercussions. He might lose friends. People might bully him. His family might be tempted to kick him out.

He might lose  _ Rick. _

That terrified him.

“H-hey, Rick,” he said, climbing into the car.

“Hey, M-Morticia.”

Morticia. He never felt like it suited him. Well, obviously it doesn’t. It’s a girl’s name. He gnawed on his lip while he thought about a solution to this problem. He could shorten his name? That would be the easiest way to do it, rather than coming up with a whole new name.

“Um, R-Rick?”

“Yeah, Morticia?” he said as the ship soared through a green portal and popped out in front of an enormous green planet.

“I-I thought of a cool, fun nickname,” he said. He was sweating bullets.

“Nicknames are d-dumb,” he said without looking over at him.

“Y-you don’t think that when Grandpa Stan calls you “honey”.”

“Sh-shut up, Morti-Morticia,” he stuttered.

“I-I just think that Morty would be a cool nickname,” he said, looking at his reflection in the windshield. “J-just a cool, fun nickname that I could use. M-Morticia sounds like th-that character f-from that show the Addams Family, y’know? M-Morty sounds like a name for a fun kinda guy, um, girl.”

Rick noticed his slip of the tongue and raised an eyebrow.

Morticia gave a weak smile.

“F-fine, M-Morty. L-let’s go get those quartz thistles, motherfucker!”

Morty sighed. It was like a weight had been taken off his chest.

...

That night, after spending the day running from horrifying monsters with drooling maws and waving tentacles, Morty found himself standing in front of the mirror. He had his ponytail in one hand, scissors in the other, poised to make a cut.

_ Do it. _

He did. His ponytail fell limp in his hand. He dropped it into the trash.

Aw, shit. He should’a got someone else to help him. His hair sagged around his cheeks, looking limp and gross. He couldn’t stay like this.

“Hey, Morticia? You done in there?” It was Summer.

“Um…” He opened the door a crack. “I-I have a problem.”

“Tampons are under the sink, dummy,” she said.

“No, um. I-I cut my hair? And it looks bad? C-can you fix it?” He peered around the corner at his sister.

“Sweet Jesus!” said Summer. “Hair emergency! Okay, calm down.”

“I’m calm,” he said.

“I was talking to myself! Morticia, grab a chair. I’m gonna fix it for you.”

“Can you cut hair?”

“Better than you,” she retorted. She fished under the sink and grabbed the razor from the box. “I’ll just buzz it down for you. There’s no saving this.”

“Oh, okay.” He ran into his room and grabbed his desk chair, dumping off the pile of clothes and comic books that had accumulated there.

“The things I do for you,” said Summer with a huff when he sat on the chair. “How short do you want it?”

“Uh… Boyish? Just short and practical.”

“Good, because I’m not giving you a fancy updo.”

Morty let out a nervous giggle as the razor buzzed against the back of his neck. Fluffy brown curls fell to the floor as Summer cleaned up his neckline and turned an ugly bob into a simple, practical haircut.

Morty looked at himself in the mirror when she was done, dusting the hair into the sink. His heart was pounding. He grinned at himself.

It was certainly a good start.

“Morticia. Sweep.” Summer handed him a broom.

“Um,” said Morty as he swept up the hair onto a dust pan. “I-I kinda thought of a cool nickname for myself?”

“As long as it’s not “McLovin”,” she said flatly.

“Heh. N-no, I just wanna shorten my name to Morty.” He liked it a little more every time he said it.

“Sure.” The gears seemed to turn in Summer’s head. “Hey, that’s a boy’s name.”

“So?” he said, then he mumbled. “That’s kinda the point.”

“What?”

“Summer, w-would it be okay if I was a boy?” he said quickly.

Summer’s eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, are you telling me that you’re trans?”

“Um.” He wanted to escape, but Summer was standing in front of the door. He clutched the broom tightly. “I-I just think I’d be happier as a boy… that’s all.”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s so  _ trendy. _ ”

Trendy?

“Thanks?” he said, unsure about how to feel about this statement.

“Does anyone else know?” she asked.

“Not really,” he said truthfully. He wasn’t sure if Rick had picked up on it, yet. He was still worried about what he would say if he just came out with it.

“Wow,” said Summer, hand on her hip. “I’m flattered to be the first person who knows.”

“I-I’m kinda nervous about this,” said Morty. “I mean… all of this. It’s not gonna be easy.”

Summer shrugged. “No, it’s not. Life isn’t easy, no matter how you spin it. It seems like this just made your road a little harder to hoe, though.”

He fiddled with the hem of his yellow t-shirt. “W-what will Mom say?” He could honestly give two shits about what Jerry thought, even if he was his dad.

“Mom loves us,” said Summer. “And I love you, Mortic… Morty. You’re my  _ brother. _ Even if you piss me off and I hate you, I still love you.”

Hearing her say that meant so much to him. He grinned, his eyes watery.

“C’mon, dummy, don’t cry.” Summer pulled him into a hug and rested her cheek on top of his head. “Do you wanna go tell Mom?”

“Right now?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Only if y-you come with me.”

“Sure thing, Morty.”

Every time she said his name, he couldn’t help smiling.

He followed his sister downstairs to the kitchen. Beth was sitting at the table with a glass of red wine in one hand and a book in the other. She looked up at the two of them, and her jaw dropped in shock.

“Morticia! What did you do to your hair?”

“I cut it,” he said quietly. “Um… Mom? I-I have something important I wanna tell you.”

Beth looked worried about his tone of voice. She put her wine glass down. “What is it?”

“Um…” He started to sweat. “J-just that…” He looked at Summer for guidance.

Summer squeezed his shoulder.

“I-I’m not your daughter,” he said. “I’m your son.”

Beth looked relieved. “Oh, thank god! I thought you were going to tell me you were pregnant!” She stood and pulled Morty into a tight hug.

Morty let out a laugh. “You’re not mad?”

“No, sweetheart,” she said, running her hand through his short curls. “You can be anything you want. I just want you to be happy.”

Morty smiled. “Thanks, mum.”

“I love you, Morticia.”

“Um.” He pulled away and gave her half a smile. “I-I’d like it if you called me Morty.”

“Morty sounds great,” she said.

...

Rick was a strange kind of unhinged. He could be an immovable solid rock of reason during a crisis, but the smallest and most petty things would have him throwing a temper tantrum. He could outrun a horrifying monster or battle fifty soldier at once without losing his cool, but if Jerry turned the heat up too high he would incite a yelling match.

Morty was kinda worried about telling Rick that he was a boy. Beth had told Jerry for him, thank god, but he wanted to tell Rick privately and alone. It meant a lot to him.

He was sitting in the car with Rick. They were buzzing through space, enjoying the view and eating ice cream bars.

The stars were beautiful. Morty hoped that Rick wouldn’t use the eject button on him.

“Um, Rick?”

“Yeah, M-Morty?”

He couldn’t help but smile at his new name. It was dumb, but he just really liked it. “I-I kinda wanna tell you something. It’s important to me.”

“I-if it’s any consolation, M-Morty, nothing matters and the concept of “importance” really has no meaning in the grand scheme of things. What’s on your mind?”

Morty huffed. “Y-you’re a jackass.”

“That’s not exactly  _ news, _ ” he said, rolling his eyes. “W-what’s  _ actually  _ on your mind?”

“Um.” He finished up his ice cream bar and dropped the wrapper on the floor of the car. “I’m sorta worried about what you’ll think of me.”

Rick took a swig from his flask and burped. “Morty, no matter what, I-I’ll always see you as a piece of shit. Take comfort in that.”

“Fuck, Rick, I’m trying to have a moment, here!” snapped Morty. “I-I-I just wanted to tell you that I-I’m trans!”

“What?” Rick sounded stupefied.

Morty pounded his fists on the dashboard. “I’m not a girl, I-I-I’m a boy! M-my name’s Morty Smith, I-I go on adventures w-w-with my asshole of a grandpa, and I’m a  _ boy! _ ”

“Oh.” Rick tossed his ice cream wrapper on the floor.

“Oh?” asked Morty, incredulous. “I-is that all you gotta say?”

“No, idiot,” said Rick irritably. “I’m not stupid. I figured it out.”

Morty was shocked. “What? When?”

“Since you wanted me to call you by a boy’s name. I-I’d guessed at it, earlier, but it was nice to be proven right.”

“So…?”

“So what?” he grumbled.

“Y-you’re not, like, upset?”

“Why would I give a shit?” asked Rick, waving his hand emphatically. “Th-the universe is a huge place, Morty! I’ve taken you to planets w-where they have thirty-six genders! Gender is fucking  _ dumb _ , Morty. W-we made it up! Gender is bullshit and people should g-get used to it!”

Morty folded his arms and crossed his legs. “Fine! If you don’t care, I should just forget about it, right? N-not like my  _ feelings  _ matter or some shit!”

Rick let out a sigh and tilted his head back. The stars swam before his tired eyes. It had been a while since he’d had this conversation, and last time he was in Morty’s place. He dug into the inside pocket of his labcoat and produced his wallet.

Rick wasn’t a sentimental person, but he kept three photos in his wallet.

One of him and his grandkids. They were piled into the car and making dumb faces at the camera.

One of him and Stan, arms around each other, laughing and drinking.

And another one of him and Stan. This one was taken in the early eighties.

“Here, dumbass.” Rick flicked the photo at him.

Morty caught it. He frowned at the photo, looking puzzled.

“I can see that this guy is Grandpa Stan,” said Morty, touching the edge of the photo. “B-but who’s that girl he’s with?”

“Me.”

Morty looked up at Rick, eyes wide, jaw slack, mouth forming a perfect “oh”.

“Th-that was from before,” he said, not looking at Morty. “Lee and I broke up not long after that picture was taken. Next time I saw him, I-I was more like  _ this. _ ” He gestured to himself. Flat chest, masculine build, deep voice. “W-we started dating again. Y-you have no idea how hard he  _ laughed  _ when I told him that I used to be Ericka, that girl he dated while he was selling Stan-wiches.”

“You’re trans?”

“Duh, Morty! G-get your shit together.”

Morty grinned and tossed the photo back to him. “Asshole.”

“Dipshit.” He pulled out the photo of the three of them together and handed it to Morty. “Keep this.”

“Why?” asked Morty.

“S-so that when and if your idiot grandson comes out to you as trans, you can show him that picture and tell him that you know what he’s going through.”

Morty grinned. He put the photo in his wallet. “Thanks, Rick.”

“S-so, Morty. I-it would take a few months for you to get started on HRT on Earth, so how about we go make a pit-stop at this nearby asteroid where we can get this shit on a five-finger discount!”

“Rick, that’s stealing.”

“Th-that’s the fun part!”

Morty groaned and rolled his eyes as the two of them descended onto the little asteroid.

...

Four months later, Morty felt like himself. Rick had bought him a binder and taught him how to use it. Surgery wouldn’t come until he was an adult, but he was okay with that, for now. He’d been on hormones for a while, so his voice was starting to crack and drop, and he even began to sprout chin hairs! Jerry had tried to teach him how to shave, failed miserably, then Rick had taught him properly.

He was right about it not being easy. He sometimes got made fun of. Some people whispered behind his back. Sometimes people called him a girl or made fun of his new name. Occasionally, somebody would call him a he-she or a drag king. Once, he came home from school with a black eye. It hurt, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as he thought it would. He would shrug at the taunting and move on. He had bigger things to worry about, bigger fish to fry, more important people to be with.

He had Rick and his hair-brained adventures. Rick and his madness, his drinking, his high-tempo sci-fi adventures. Rick would always be there for Morty, forever and ever, in some way, shape, or form.

After all, it wasn’t Ericka and Morticia for a hundred years.

It was Rick and Morty.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! This was my first time writing a trans character, so please tell me what you think! I just scribbled this out while taking a break from my stanchez fic Car Thief and my Gravity Falls/Relativity Falls fic. If you like those things, please consider checking them out!
> 
> Comments? Questions? Shoot me a message!
> 
> EDIT: changed two months on HRT to four, and fixed a typo! thanks to Zinthr for pointing it out!


End file.
